The Colorado Rockies have been winning a lot of games by the skin of their teeth lately but were unable to do so on Thursday. Antonio Senzatela, Seunghwan Oh, and Adam Ottovino held the Cardinals to one run on five hits through eight innings, but Wade Davis was unable to lock down the game. After a stellar Nolan Arenado defensive play to start the inning, Greg Garcia singled for the Cardinals, moved to third on a Harrison Bader single, and, after Bader stole second, Jose Martinez hit a pinch-hit walk-off single to give the Cardinals the series victory. The Rockies are now 42-63 all-time in St Louis and haven’t won a series there since 2009.
The matinee game continues to be the bane of the Rockies existence this season (they are now 14-23 in day games). At least this one clocked in at just over three hours, a welcome relief after Wednesday night’s four hour snooze fest.
Antonio Senzatela effective
Antonio Senzatela has been bouncing around the roster this year but has been fairly effective since coming back up to the major league rotation on July 3. He turned in another excellent start on Thursday afternoon, allowing just one run on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts over six innings. He managed to work out of trouble well. After two lead off singles in the third, he allowed just the one run, and then managed to load the bases in the sixth before striking out Harrison Bader to keep the Cardinals off the board. He lowered his ERA to 4.56 and, on a day with the offense couldn’t get much going, kept the Rockies in the game and departed with the lead.
Little offense
A fourth inning rally was all that was all the offense could manage Thursday. Nolan Arenado earned his sixth hit in the series to lead off, followed by a Carlos González bunt single. Two batters later Gerardo Parra singled home Nolan but Cargo was thrown out at third when he overslid the bag. Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas gifted the Rockies the lead when a potential inning-ending groundball to the pitcher turned into an single and a run scored after he threw the ball into right field.
Ugly umpiring
Between borderline calls and inconsistent strikezones, the umpiring crew for this series has been...subpar. In an emblamatic play in the top of the eighth, Cargo broke for second when Trevor Story swung through a 3-2 pitch. Cargo (again) overslid the bag but seemed to keep his right foot on the bag throughout while Greg Garcia applied the tag. Second base umpire Joe West, however, disagreed and called him out. Bud Black challenged but the review crew in New York apparently did not see enough evidence to overturn.
In the bottom half of the inning, Paul DeJong attempted to steal second with one out and also overslid the bag. DJ LeMahieu reached back and tagged his right foot but he was called safe. Despite being out of challenges, Bud Black requested an umpire review (since it was after the seventh inning), which was granted and Paul DeJong was called out. One pitch later the inning was over.
Up Next
The Rockies travel to Milwaukee to take on the NL Wild Card leading Brewers. The Brew Crew will arrive home late after their late game tonight against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, a game that will have ramifications for the Rockies, who trail Milwaukee by 3.5 games for the first Wild Card and the Dodgers by 1.5 games for the division/second wild card.
First pitch in Milwaukee will be 6:10 pm MT, with Germán Márquez getting the start against Junior Guerra.